


Dutiful

by ohsnapCiera



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-12-05 07:27:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11573256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohsnapCiera/pseuds/ohsnapCiera
Summary: “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.I learn by going where I have to go.… … … …This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.What falls away is always. And is near.I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.I learn by going where I have to go.”-“The Waking”, Theodore Roethke-





	Dutiful

Lunafreya stirs, eyes squeezing shut tighter before slowly blinking open. She watches dust motes spin a lazy dance through the slants of light that creep their way across her floor. Carefully, gradually that light inches closer to the hand resting on the top of her pillow case; she stretches her fingers, reaching, desperate to feel that warmth.

She sighs- quiet, impatient- tired of waiting. A rustle of sheets and her feet hit the floor. She wiggles her toes, finding herself wishing for the plush rug she knows hasn’t been there since she was a girl.

Her desk is just as she’d left it before. Luna reaches for the picture frame at its center; bringing it closer and allowing herself a wide smile. Her eyes crinkle with laughter as her other hand comes up to muffle the sound.

From behind the glass of the frame, a young Noctis looks back at her, all wide-eyed surprise. To his left is Umbra; mid jump with tongue flopped out, intent on delivering the sloppiest of kisses to the little prince.

A piece of stationary catches her attention as she returns the photo. She trails her finger along the paper’s edge, stopping at the sylleblossom printed in the bottom right corner, traces the delicate gold swirls that accompany it. At the top, in a script she recognizes as her own, is written: _My dearest_.

No matter how hard Luna tries, she cannot recall who this letter had been meant for.

She finds herself next at the glass door that opens into the garden. The press of palm against it stirs a feeling she can’t put a name to; the scene outside is peaceful- bees buzzing happily among the flowers, birds chirping their morning song- yet her heart pounds in her chest and she wants nothing more than to run. Wants to hide under her blankets like she did as a child; wants her mother to find her, coax her out with a soft song and fingers working through her hair.

It passes.

It’s then that Luna feels a hand on her shoulder. Finally, here is the warmth her own hand had been reaching for, rays of light to slot perfectly in the spaces between her fingers like they were meant to be there all along. The hand squeezes, strong but gentle, and that heat spreads, unhurried, down her left arm.

Suddenly, that arm is engulfed in flame.

Luna finds herself unable to move, forced to keep her eyes fixed on the sun as it rises. The panic that she anticipates never comes, however. Beyond everything else, she is-

_Awake_.

This awakening is just as gradual though more familiar for its chill. Her arms throbs a phantom pain and she clenches her fist, overwhelmingly thankful that her body is once again obeying her commands.

That fist slams down onto the arm of the plush chair she’s found herself in, folding in on herself as shivers give way to desperate heaving; every breath is woefully short of what she needs to fill her lungs. She stills before long, as steady as she can hope to be.

Camelia speaks and Lunafreya responds, embers still burning under the skin of her arm, little sunrises all their own. She clings to that. She must.

She stands, ready, resolute; hard and cold as the steel of the guns pointed in her face. She brushes them away as she exits. For her they are nothing but ash, consumed by the fire of her resolve.

She goes forward to ensure a future for those who want to see it.

 


End file.
